>1) Who in your immediate family has allergic reaction to milk, and how
>severe is it? For each family member listed, answer questions 2-7.
Me: moderate-to-severe. Symptoms: respiratory distress, irritable bowel,
rheumatoid arthritis. Also soy.
Josh, my 11 year old son: severe; anaphylaxis. Also eggs, nuts. Some minor
reactions to some fruits. Has never eaten a nut or an egg or shellfish.
He did have some nasty bouts of in-utero / prenatal "hiccups". That's when
Leslie started noticing an association with her diet and his responses.
Being born with eczema and considering my history, we suspected foods
allergies, and had that confirmed by both tests (some false negatives) and
anaphylactic reactions.
>
>2) How long was the person breast fed with no supplemental bottles? (If
>supplemental bottles were given for the first week, but then the child was
>nursed without supplemental bottles for the next year, please indicate
>that).
>
Me: bottle fed, milk only, from birth(!!@$%!#).
Josh: Breast fed for 14 months, with no non-breast-milk bottles until 7-8
months (?). Then on to soy formula. No milk *ever* (well, once, but he
survived that!)
>3) How long did the mother follow a dairy free diet, if at all (include
>time while pregnant and while nursing)?
>
Josh: not at all.
Me: not at all.
>4) After weaning, what formula was the child put on?
Josh: Nursoy soy formula, from concentrate (no corn or dairy in it).
>
>5) When were any foods containing dairy first introduced to the child
>(i.e. first had cheese at 4 months, etc)
>
Never. Tried at 2-1/2 years, with resulting anaphylactic reaction.
>6) When and how did the person's dairy allergy first show up?
>
Josh: As stated above.
Me: adult-onset (age 18+), but lesser, unrecognized symptoms earlier.
>7) If the person is your child, what would you have done differently while
>pregnant, nursing, or during the first two years of life, if anything?
>
Non-dairy diet during pregnancy, nursing (with some risk of not being able
to consume dairy products after). Did that for our second and third,
neither afflicted.
>8) For family members not afflicted with dairy allergy, how long was the
>person breast fed with no supplemental bottles?
>
18-24 months. Went straight from breast-milk to breast-milk plus foods (age
6 mos?), with juices added in sometime along the way.
>9) For family members not afflicted with dairy allergy, how long did the
>mother follow a dairy free diet, if at all (include time while pregnant
>and while nursing).
>
Mostly dairy-free (with a few "cheats") for entirety of both pregnancies
and during nursing of both of our non-food-allergic children.
Same for eggs and nuts, which our oldest is also anaphylactically allergic to.
The key here is moderation - minimal exposure. It's not quite as severe as
being anaphylactically allergic and not able to let a single drop pass your
lips.
>10) If you know of women who followed a dairy free diet while pregnant in
>the interest of minimizing the child's sensitivity to dairy, when did she
>start on the diet? As soon as she knew she was pregnant? Before getting
>pregnant? Only during later trimesters?
After conception.
Did any of this make a difference? Dunno. Could have. But then again, it
could be the genetic blend that they inherited - could be that both
non-food-allergics are right-handed and Josh and I are left-handed. It
didn't hurt my wife to try, though, and it may have helped. It did result
in a greater personal understanding of just how difficult it is to have
such a pervasive dietary restriction. If we have another child, I'm sure
she'd do it again.
My take: go ahead and be mostly dairy-free for both the pregnancy and the
nursing; go easy on the eggs and nuts and shellfish and soy - keep a varied
diet, and make sure you get good pre- and post-natal nutrition. Also, make
sure that you make up for lost calcium if you remove dairy.
Good luck
Mark
____________________________________________________________
Mark Feblowitz GTE Laboratories Incorporated
[log in to unmask] 40 Sylvan Road, Waltham, MA 02154-1120
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